Charged particle beam apparatuses have many functions in a plurality of industrial fields, including, but not limited to, inspection of semiconductor devices during manufacturing, exposure systems for lithography, detecting devices and testing systems. Thus, there is a high demand for structuring and inspecting specimens within the micrometer and nanometer scale.
Micrometer and nanometer scale process control, inspection or structuring, is often done with charged particle beams, e.g., electron beams, which are generated and focused in charged particle beam devices, such as electron microscopes or electron beam pattern generators. Charged particle beams offer superior spatial resolution compared to, e.g., photon beams due to their short wavelengths.
Signals can be generated, for example, by detection of secondary particles released from a specimen on impingement of a primary charged particle beam. Thereby, it is desirable to improve efficiency and homogeneity of the detection.